Sri Lanka refused permission to the United States to station two of its warplanes at a civilian airport in the island’s south in early March, President Anura Kumara Dissanayake said Friday.
Washington wanted to relocate two of its missile-armed aircraft from a base in Djibouti to Sri Lanka’s civilian Mattala International Airport, Dissanayake told parliament.
The request, made on Feb. 26, two days before the U.S.-Israeli assault on Iran began, was turned down to maintain Colombo’s neutrality and ensure its territory was not used for any military purpose that could help or hinder either side, he said.
Sri Lanka was drawn into the consequences of the war when a U.S. submarine torpedoed an Iranian frigate, the IRIS Dena, just off its coast in March.
“They wanted to bring two warplanes armed with eight anti-ship missiles to Mattala International Airport from March 4 to 8, and we said ‘no’,” Dissanayake said.
He did not say whether the U.S. request was to use Sri Lanka as a base for the aircraft to carry out offensive actions against Iran.
Dissanayake said Iran, too, had requested port calls for three of its warships, returning from India after a naval exercise, on the same day the U.S. requested permission to station their two aircraft.
“We were still considering the Iranian request to bring the three ships to Colombo from March 9 to 13. Had we said ‘yes’ to Iran, we would have had to say ‘yes’ to the U.S. too,” he said. “But we didn’t. We are steadfastly maintaining our position of neutrality.”
